Monday, 24 February 2014

Research conducted by Social
Investigations has revealed a million pound recruitment bonanza for just three companies attached to
Lords and an MP made possible thanks to their vote.

When the Health and Social Care
bill was being debated in the House of Commons, Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi
rose in defence of the beleaguered Andrew Lansley to say
GPs were “absolutely passionate” about the reforms and that it was a “brilliant
piece of legislation”.

Nadhim Zahawi sits on the board
as a non-executive director of recruitment company SThree for which he receives
regular monthly payments of £2,916.67 for 7 hours work.

Sthree is the parent company of international recruitment leaders Real
Staffing, who work in the Healthcare & Life Sciences sectors.

His enthusiasm for the reforms
was abundantly clear and his vote helped pass the bill into an Act, which
created the new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).

Now, it can revealed that Real Staffing have been working with the
new CCGs through new revenue opportunities made possible by Mr Zahawi’s vote.

The recruitment company, who has
previously worked in other areas of the NHS, turned their sights on CCGs once
they took over commissioning responsibilities. Freedom of Information requests sent out to all CCGs, revealed that the new commissioners have spent over two million pound on services provided by Real Staffing, covering areas such as
Programme projects, Business Infomatics and administration posts.

The financial benefits for recruitment are clear, costing one
CCG £486,000 for 11 staff at a cost to the Bromley CCG of over £44,000 per
position filled.

Personnel Profit

Companies attached to MPs and
Lords have led the recruitment bonanza in the new NHS, providing personnel into
key positions in the new structure created by the Health Act.

NHS regulator and competition enforcer, Monitor, has spent close
to half a million on two companies attached to Lords to fill senior positions.
Following a Freedom of Information request, it was discovered that one of the
companies, Odgers Berndtson, filled 12 senior personnel at a cost of close to £200,000
in agency fees. The Chairman, Richard Boggis-Rolfe, has given £207,500
in donations
to the Conservative party between 2006 up until the General election. Odgers
employ Baroness Bottomley as Chair of the Board and CEO practice and she also
holds shares in their holding company Broomco Ltd.

The question this blog keeps asking is why are MPs allowed to vote
on legislation when they have a financial interest? At local government level,
anyone with a financial or non-financial interest, is debarred from the vote. Given that Real
Staffing have now gained revenue through the CCGs, Mr Zahawi was asked whether
his vote was for the benefit of Sthree through Real Staffing or in the interest
of the public and whether he thought it was acceptable that there should be a
difference between the rules that apply to MPs and councillors.

He failed to address this question stating
only that his appointment with SThree took
place in 2008, prior to becoming an MP. He also stated that Real Staffing have
been providing services to the public sector prior to his appointment onto the
board and that he “never discussed any bills with any board members."

This may be the case, but why is
the public placed in a position in which they are forced to take the word of an
MP, when such doubt should be removed altogether. The
intentional loop-hole in the rules weakens democracy and places distrust
in the eyes of the public whether justified or otherwise.

In the meantime, the amount of companies that are
financially connected to MPs and Lords who have gone on to gain contracts in
the new NHS continues to increase and the question is, who do our parliamentarians serve?

Friday, 7 February 2014

Former gambling Lobbyist and Labour party
donor Lord Mendelsohn incorporated new Hospital Group on the same day he joined
the Lords.

When it comes to conflicts of interest, the
Labour party is in no position to throw stones at anyone. One in six Labour Lords have recent or present
financial links to companies or individuals involved in private healthcare.

In the next election, the NHS will undoubtedly be one of the key battlegrounds
in the fight for people’s votes. Labour has promised to repeal the external
market elements of the Health and Social Care Act if they get into power.
Presumably then, they will be less than happy about the newly made life Peer,
Baron Mendelsohn’s latest venture into hospitals.

Jonathan Mendelsohn is firmly in the New
Labour camp, being a director of their think tank Progress. Mendelsohn was at
the centre of a controversy back in 1998, when he helped set up a lobbying firm called LLM
Communications (now dissolved). The manifesto of their successful operation read
according to journalist Greg Palast as “leaders who lead” are antique creatures
of The Passing World. Today, markets lead. Industry CEOs lead. In the Emerging
World, prime ministers and presidents merely “listen.”

Greg Palast wrote that as part of an article following his undercover work
that caught both Mendelsohn and his fellow lobbyist Derek Draper on tape. The
sting had them boasting about how they could get access to government
ministers, create tax breaks, you know the usual stuff.

So why on Earth did Labour think it would be a good idea to make Mendelsohn a
Life peer in September?Was it
because he was a good fund-raiser? Not without controversy. A big donor? He has
given money to Labour before, but not a lot in donor world, just two £5,000
payments to Peter Hain and Gordon Brown in their respective leadership
campaigns. Electoral Commission

Now he has just incorporated a new company of which he is the sole owner and
which coincidentally was incorporated ‘received for filing’ at Companies House
on the same day he became a life peer. The new business is called
‘Europa Hospitals Group’, which has one office in Madrid and one in London and
a website that says ‘coming soon’. In what form this business
will materialise is currently unclear as the accounts say nothing about the
business, and as yet neither does the website. It could be an investment vehicle
for hospitals or private hospitals themselves. An email to his new company has
been sent asking for more details.

Aside from this interest, Baron Mendelsohn is also an adviser to law firm
Berwin Leighton Paisner that have a specialist healthcare
division working with the NHS in PFI projects, and NHS Trusts. The law firm
also works with private healthcare clients that include companies, BUPA,
Barchester Health, UK Specialist Hospitals, as well as some NHS Trusts.

As Labour moves away from New Labour in the Commons, they have promoted New
Labour in the Lords, a House where rampant vested interests reign. Mendelsohn
was an embarrassment to Labour back in 1998, and by placing him into the Lords,
are they opening themselves up to more unnecessary pain?

The question many potential voters may well ask is will the real Labour please
stand up!